Sophia Loren

Sophia Loren (/soʊˈfiːə ləˈrɛn/; Italian pronunciation: [soˈfiːa ˈlɔːren]; born Sofia Villani Scicolone [soˈfiːa vilˈlaːni ʃʃikoˈloːne], 20 September 1934) is an Italian film actress. She began her career at age 14 after entering a beauty pageant in 1949. Encouraged to enroll in acting lessons, Loren appeared in several bit parts and minor roles until the late 1950s when Loren's five-picture contract with Paramount launched her international career. Notable film appearances around this time include Houseboat, That Kind of Woman, and It Started in Naples.

Her talents as an actress were not recognized until her performance as Cesira in Vittorio De Sica's Two Women; Loren's performance earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1962 and made her the first artist to win an Oscar for a foreign-language performance. She holds the record for having earned six David di Donatello Awards for Best Actress, the most ever received: Two Women, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Marriage Italian Style (for which she was nominated for a second Oscar), Sunflower, The Voyage, and A Special Day. After starting her family in the early 1970s, Loren spent less time on her acting career and chose to make only occasional film appearances. In later years, she has appeared in American films such as Grumpier Old Men and Nine.

B-boying

B-boying or breaking, also called breakdancing, is a style of street dance that originated primarily among African American and Puerto Rican youth, many former members of the Black Spades, the Young Spades, and the Baby Spades, during the mid 1970s. The dance spread worldwide due to popularity in the media, especially in regions such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Russia, and South Korea. While diverse in the amount of variation available in the dance, b-boying consists of four kinds of movement: toprock, downrock, power moves, and freezes. B-boying is typically danced to hip-hop, funk music, and especially breakbeats, although modern trends allow for much wider varieties of music along certain ranges of tempo and beat patterns.

A practitioner of this dance is called a b-boy, b-girl, or breaker. Although the term "breakdance" is frequently used to refer to the dance in popular culture and in the mainstream entertainment industry, "b-boying" and "breaking" are the original terms. These terms are preferred by the majority of the pioneers and most notable practitioners.

Beastie Boys

The Beastie Boys were an American hip hop/rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. For the majority of its career, the group consisted of Michael "Mike D" Diamond (vocals, drums), Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass) and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (vocals, guitar).

Originally formed as a four-piece hardcore punk band, The Young Aborigines, in 1978 by Diamond (vocals), John Berry (guitar), Yauch (bass) and Kate Schellenbach (drums), the band appeared on the compilation cassette New York Thrash, before recording their first EP, Polly Wog Stew, in 1982. Berry left shortly thereafter, and was replaced by Horovitz. After achieving moderate local success with the 1983 experimental hip hop 12-inch "Cooky Puss", Schellenbach dropped out and the group made a full transition to hip hop, releasing a string of successful singles. The Beastie Boys toured with Madonna in 1985 and a year later released their debut album Licensed to Ill. The group sold 26 million albums in the United States and 50 million albums worldwide, making them, according to Billboard, "the biggest-selling rap group" since the magazine began recording sales data in 1991.

Sofia

Sofia (/ˈsoʊfiə/) (Bulgarian: София, Sofiya,pronounced [ˈsɔfijɐ]) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. Sofia is the 15th largest city in the European Union with population of more than 1.2 million people. The city is located at the foot of Vitosha Mountain in the western part of the country, within less than 50 kilometres (31 mi) drive from the Serbian border. Its location in the centre of the Balkan peninsula means that it is the midway between the Black Sea and the Adriatic Sea, whereas the Aegean Sea is the closest to it.

Sofia has been an area of human habitation since at least 7000 BCE. Many of the major universities, cultural institutions and commercial companies of Bulgaria are concentrated in Sofia. Sofia is one of the top 10 best places for start-up business in the world, especially in IT technologies. Sofia is Europe's most affordable capital to visit as of 2013.

Names

For the longest time the city possessed a Thracian name, derived from the tribe Serdi, who were either of Thracian,Celtic, or mixed Thracian-Celtic origin. The Serdi and the name of emperor Marcus Ulpius Traianus (53 – 117 AD) prompted the Romans to give the city the combinative name of Ulpia Serdica; Ulpia is derived from an Umbrian cognate of the Latin word lupus, meaning "wolf." It seems that the first written mention of Serdica was made during his reign and the last mention was in the 19th century in a Bulgarian text (Сардакіи, Sardaki). During the Romans civitas Serdenisium was mentioned the "brightest city of the Serdi" in official inscriptions. The city was major throughout the past ever since Antiquity, when Roman emperor Constantine the Great referred to it as "my Rome", and it nearly became his capital.

Sophia (name)

Sophia is a female name derived from σοφία, the Greek word for "Wisdom". The name was used to represent the personification of wisdom.

Popularity

Sophia has been a popular name throughout the Western world and in parts of the Islamic world. It is the most popular given name for girls in the US for 2012. Sophie was the fifth most popular name for girls in Australia in 2013.

Name variants

People

Sofía (Echinades)

Sofia (Greek: Σοφία or Σοφιά also Isle of Gaia) is an island of the Echinades, among the Ionian Islands group of Greece. As of 2011, it had no resident population.

In June 2015 it was reported that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were considering buying the 17 hectares (42 acres) island for $4.7 million. It has planning permission for six villas.

References

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